Linearized digital phase-locked loop method

ABSTRACT

A method of synchronizing a clock signal to a data signal, comprising the steps of (A) detecting a first edge of the data signal, (B) determining a first value indicating a position of the first edge, (C) adding the first value to a second value, wherein the second value indicates a position of a second edge of the data signal and (D) adjusting the clock signal based on the result of step (C).

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/203,718, filed May 12, 2000 and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

The present application may relate to co-pending application Ser. No. 09/745,660, filed Dec. 21, 2000 and Ser. No. 09/745,281 filed Dec. 21, 2000, which are each hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and/or architecture for implementing phase-locked loops (PLLs) generally and, more particularly, to a method and/or architecture for implementing linearized digital PLLs.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Conventional approaches for implementing PLLs include the bang-bang approach which comprises taking snapshots of the phase error with respect to edges of incoming data. The bang-bang approach corrects on every data edge based solely on the direction (polarity) of the offset. As a result, a bang-bang system is never truly “locked”. In the best case, a bang-bang system is nearly locked and makes a correction at every data edge (i.e., clocks are either switched clockwise or counter clockwise depending on the polarity of the phase offset). The bang-bang approach has the disadvantage of introducing excessive jitter in the resulting recovered clock since the clock is being shrunk or expanded at every edge.

Referring to FIG. 1, a circuit 10 implementing a conventional bang-bang approach for constructing digital phase locked loops is shown. The circuit 10 involves the use of over sampling methods to determine in which quadrant of the clock the data edge resides. The quadrant information is then applied to an adjustment mechanism which moves the clock the appropriate direction at each interval. No information associated with the magnitude of phase error is retained or utilized. Polarity of the error and presence of a data transition are the only information used to adapt the phase of the clock to the incoming datastream.

Referring to FIG. 2, a flow diagram 30 illustrating the operation of the conventional bang-bang circuit 10 is shown. The circuit 10 checks for a data edge and determines the relative polarity between the data and clock. If the polarity of the data relative to the clock is positive, the clocks are switched counterclockwise. If the polarity of the data relative to the clock is negative, the clocks are switched clockwise.

Since the circuit 10 does not use magnitude information, a transfer function is exhibited at the phase detector which has the characteristics typical of a bang-bang approach. Such detectors have an inability to tolerate large input signal distortion, such as the distortion that may be found at the end of typical wired media.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns a method of synchronizing a clock signal to a data signal, comprising the steps of (A) detecting a first edge of the data signal, (B) determining a first value indicating a position of the first edge, (C) adding the first value to a second value, wherein the second value indicates a position of a second edge of the data signal and (D) adjusting the clock signal based on the result of step (C).

The objects, features and advantages of the present invention include providing a method and/or architecture for implementing a linearized digital PLL that may (i) reduce the sorts of distortion associated with media induced effects, (ii) reduce duty-cycle-distortion (DCD) and/or (iii) reduce data-dependant-jitter (DDJ), (DCD and DDJ may be lumped into the single category of systematic jitter).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description and the appended claims and drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional bang-bang system;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the operation of the conventional bang-bang circuit of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the logic block of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a timing diagram illustrating example waveforms of the circuit of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example operation of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIG. 3, a block diagram of a circuit 100 is shown in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The circuit 100 generally comprises a logic block (or circuit) 102 and a control block (or circuit) 104. The circuit 104 may be implemented as a control circuit configured to adjust the frequency of an output clock.

The circuit 104 generally comprises a circuit 110, a circuit 112, a circuit 114 and a circuit 116. The circuit 104 may also comprise a number of memory elements 118 a-118 n and a number of buffers 120 a-120 n. The circuit 110 may be implemented as an edge detection circuit. The circuit 110 may present a signal (e.g., DATAPULSE) to the logic block 102. The signal DATAPULSE may be generated in response to a signal (e.g., DI_N) and a signal (e.g., DI_P). The signals DI_P and DI_N may be a complementary pair of signals. In one example, the circuit 110 may be configured to generate a pulse signal in response to a transition of a data signal. The circuit 112 may be implemented as a counter circuit. The circuit 112 may present a signal (e.g., DATA_VALID). The signal DATA_VALID may be used to indicate a locked mode of the circuit 100. The circuit 114 may be implemented, in one example, as a phase lock loop (PLL). The PLL circuit 114 may present a number of clock signals (e.g., PLL_CLK_0-PLL_CLK_N) to the circuit 116. The signals PLL_CLK_0-PLL_CLK_N may include true and complement forms of the signals.

The circuit 116 may be implemented as a multiplexer circuit. The circuit 116 may present a number of signals (e.g., CLK(A:D)). In one example, the circuit 116 may be implemented as a multiple input multiplexer that may present an output signal based on a control signal (e.g., SEL) generated by the logic block 102. The circuit 116 may be configured to select a number of the signals PLL_CLK_0-PLL_CLK_N for presentation as the signals CLK(A:D) in response to the signal SEL.

The circuit 100 may implement a digital phase-detector (e.g., the logic block 102) that may be used as an integral part of a digital phase-locked loop for data and clock recovery circuits. Specifically, the digital phase-detector 102 may be used for linearization of the phase-detection and loop mechanisms to overcome the disadvantages associated with conventional systems (discussed in the background section of the present application).

Referring to FIG. 4, a more detailed diagram of the logic circuit 102 is shown. The logic circuit 102 generally comprises three major blocks, a phase-detector 122, a filter 124, and a phase-switcher 126. A preferred embodiment of the present invention, in its basic form, presumes a multi-phase reference clock controlled by the phase-switcher 126. The phase-detector 122 may be configured to detect the presence of a data-transition and compare the relative phase of the data-edge with that of the clock signals CLK(A:D). The relative phase is reduced to a numerical representation of the magnitude of the phase error between the data edge and the signals CLK(A:D), (e.g., between −N and +N, where N is the number of phases controlled by the phase-switcher 126).

The filter 124 may be implemented as a sample and hold circuit that maintains a relative error and generates a signal to enable the movement of the phase-switcher clock-phase and a signal to indicate the direction (e.g., increment/decrement) of such phase-movement. By combining the functions, the phase of a clock presented by the phase-switcher 126 is continually aligned to the incoming datastream allowing a simple sampling arrangement to recover the data bits. The functional architecture closely emulates an analog system, where the phase-detector and the filter block are similar, but represented by time-voltage-current analog circuits and the phase-switcher 126 is typically replaced by a VCO, or variable delay-line in a delay-locked loop (DLL). The phase detector 122 can transmit a number discrete digital levels, where a linear system may transmit a theoretically infinite resolution of signal into the filter 124.

The filter 124 may hold digital numerical values. In a linear system, a capacitance element is utilized to integrate charge into voltage. The phase-switcher 126 combined with a multi-phase reference clock signals PLL_CLK0-PLL_CLK_N and CLK(A:D) effectively emulates VCO performance by allowing continual, though discrete-increment movement, of the clock phase edges into the system.

The phase detector 122 may comprise a register (e.g., REG1) and a circuit 130. The filter 124 may comprise a register (e.g., REG2), a circuit 134 and a register (e.g., REG3). The phase switcher 126 may comprise a circuit 136, a register (e.g., REG4), a circuit 138 and a register (e.g., REG5). The circuit 130 may be implemented as a coder circuit. The circuit 134 may be implemented as an accumulator circuit. The circuit 136 may be implemented as an increment/decrement logic circuit. The circuit 138 may be implemented as a decoder circuit. In a preferred embodiment, the circuit 138 may be implemented as a 3 to 8 decoder.

The register REG1 generally receives the signals DATAPULSE and CLK(A:D) from the circuit 104. An output of the register REG1 may be presented to an input of the circuit 130. The circuit 130 may have an output that may present a signal to an input of the register REG2. The circuit 130 may generate the signal by encoding the polarity and magnitude of the phase differences between the data-edge represented by the signal DATAPULSE and the signals CLK(A:D). The register REG2 may have an output that may present a signal to an input of the circuit 134. The circuit 134 may have an output that may present a signal to an input of the register REG3. The register REG3 may present a signal to an input of the circuit 136. An output of the circuit 136 may be presented to an input of the register REG4. The register REG4 generally presents a signal to the register REG5. The register REG5 may then present the signal SEL in response to an output of the circuit 134. The registers REG2, REG3 and REG5 generally have control inputs that may receive the signal CLK(A). The register REG4 may have a control input that generally receives the signal CLK(B).

The circuit 100 generally allows for the use of the detected phase error magnitude to emulate a linearized system having the characteristics at a macro level which approach a pure linear system. However, the circuit 100 may have resolution intervals allowing the simplicity of digital mechanisms to be implemented.

The advantage of the linearized system 100 over the pure digital PLL may be demonstrated by observation of the operation of the system 100 under high-levels of data stream distortion. Particularly, the operation of the circuit 100 may be observed under the sorts of distortion associated with media induced effects, (e.g., systematic jitter, duty-cycle-distortion (DCD) and data-dependant-jitter (DDJ)).

Systematic jitter has the characteristics that the predominant effect is one of having few data transitions at the average location of the data edge. Rather, the data transitions may have a bi-modal distribution of the edge placements of the datastream at some −M/+M location. When the data edges predominantly occur at locations −M and +M relative to the average location (or zero-phase) then any misalignment with the local clock cannot be determined by any single data edge placement.

The operation of the present invention may be easily demonstrated by considering a simple sequence. Presume an incoming datastream DI_N and DI_P is distorted such that the edges occur at −J nS and +K nS, where 0 nS is the ideal non-distorted location of the edges, or the ‘average’ location of the edges. Further presume that mechanisms associated with real systems during acquisition and normal operation are such that the magnitude of J and K are not necessarily equal. The conventional ‘bang-bang’ digital PLL would see −J1, +K1, −J2, +K2, −J3, +K3, etc. and generate a response, as a control to the internal phase-switcher, which would cause the clock to decrement in phase, then increment, decrement, increment, etc, no matter what the values of J and K.

In contrast, the present invention may accumulate (or sum) the magnitude as −J1+K1−J2+K2−J3+K3 and respond when the accumulation goes beyond some threshold. If J=K then the accumulation would net zero on a continuous basis. For magnitudes of −J+K greater than (clock period)/2N (where 2N is the number of clock phases available for selection by the phase-switcher, as mentioned above) the system 100 may accumulate a small numerical average corresponding to the ‘average’ alignment ‘around’ the ideal zero-phase location, just as does a linear system. Thus, the system 100 would be able to adapt to frequency-tracking conditions associated with real systems, whereas the conventional approaches discussed in the background section would fail beyond some level of distortion magnitude.

The theoretical fail point for the conventional system is ½ the clock period of distortion of the incoming datastream, then reduced by addition of general system non-idealities, matching, and the presence of random jitter components in the datastream. The theoretical limits of operation of the circuit 100 are generally limited only by the numerical resolution N, associated with the detection resolution increments, and for cases of N=4, about ¾ clock-period, also as above reduced by system non-idealities, matching, and random jitter in the datastream. The ability to tolerate an additional ¼ clock-period of data distortion can make the difference between a device that is marginal or does not function with a particular media, and one that exhibits infinitely low bit-error-rates.

For the USB 2.0 specification (published April 2000 and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety), a conventional bang-bang digital PLL will be marginal, if operable, to the system specifications for datastream distortion. Alternative implementations of the phase-detector may vary primarily in the exact construction of the numerical slicing/detection method or conversion of phase-alignment to a numerical value or input to the accumulator. Variants of the filter block 124 are ordinarily limited to the magnitude of the accumulator threshold level detection for enabling a phase-adjustment of the phase-switcher block 126. Other filter clock variants may allow for the effective detection limit to adapt to acquisition conditions to allow for combination of fast acquisition and maximum tolerance when acquired. The implementation variants of the phase-switcher 126 and reference clock functions are predominantly associated with the number of raw clock phases available (e.g., 2N) for selection-switching, and the incrementer/decrementer and associated clock-mux design and timing.

The circuit 100 implements the clocks sampled by data method described in co-pending provisional application (Ser. No. 60/203,616), which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Referring to FIG. 5, a timing diagram of the present invention is shown. The high bandwidth linearized system 100 may add the ability to assign an offset value to a magnitude of the offset (e.g., if there are eight octants of phase adjustment, the error might be measured as +/−0,1,2 or 3). The system 100 may accumulate (via the accumulator 134) a net offset by summing each new offset with the accumulated value and making corrections based on the polarity of the overall value. For a sequence of errors=−3, +1 , −2, +1, the conventional ‘bang-bang’ PLL corrects in the sequence: +, −, +, −, ignoring magnitude. The high bandwidth linearized system 100 may correct the errors in the sequence: +, +, +, +, thus correcting for an “average” displacement of the DATAPULSE/CLK(A:D) relationship.

A detailed description of an operation of the logic block 102 will now be described. An incoming serial data signal DI_N and DI_P may be sampled on the rising and falling edges to generate the signal DATAPULSE. The signal DATAPULSE may be used to clock the current values of the clocks CLK(A:D) into the register REG1. The value of the register REG1 may be encoded into, in one example, a 3-bit signal (via the coder 130). However, other bitwidths may be implemented to meet the design criteria of a particular application. The output of the encoder circuit 130 is a 3-bit signal, the output may comprise one bit of polarity information and two bits of magnitude information. The coded value generally represents the offset of the sampled clocks to the ideal sample point in the serial data stream. The coded value is generally clocked into the register REG2 on the falling edge of the signal CLKA (e.g., A(fall)).

The offset magnitude value is added to the value currently in the accumulator 134. The result is clocked into the register REG3 on a falling edge of the clock CLKA. The Inc/Dec logic 136 generally updates the register REG4 as determined by the value of the most significant bit of the register REG3, which represents the polarity of the value currently stored in the accumulator 134.

The polarity of the offset is then passed to the Inc/Dec logic 136. The value of the register REG4 is then incremented or decremented as indicated by the polarity of the offset value on the next rising edge of the clock signal CLKB. The register REG4 and the Inc/Dec logic 136 may be implemented as a 3-bit counter with wrap around and single adjustment limits. The value of the register REG4 may be decoded into a 1 of 8 value via the decoder 138. The decoded value is then clocked into the register REG5 on the next falling edge of the signal CLKA.

The value in the register REG4 is generally decoded into 1 of 8 value that is clocked into the register REG5 on the next falling edge of CLKA. When the register REG5 is updated, select values into the PLL clock select multiplexers are changed, thus changing the mapping between the input PLL clocks PLL_CLK_0-PLL_CLK_N and the internally sampled CLK(A-D). Using the example where the input PLL clocks PLL_CLK_0-PLL_CLK_N are all 480 MHz clocks with ⅛ bit of phase difference, a ⅛ bit time phase adjustment on the sample clock CLKA may be made. The apparatus for determining the operational mode (e.g., HIGH or LOW bandwidth) is the bandwidth limit logic 112. The logic 112 may be implemented, in one example, as a 4-bit counter that is cleared by an external signal and clocked by the falling edge of CLKA. However, other bit width counters may be implemented accordingly to meet the design criteria of a particular implementation. The counter may assert the signal DATAVALID at a first predetermined count (e.g., seven bit times) and assert the bandwidth limit signal LIMIT at a second predetermined count (e.g., fifteen bit times). The assertion of the bandwidth limit signal LIMIT changes the mode of the PLL from the high bandwidth “acquire” mode to the low bandwidth “tracking” mode. The circuit 100 may present the output clock as the inversion of the current CLKA. The data is generally recovered by sampling the data stream with a falling edge of the signal CLKA (e.g., through two D flip-flops) and then again with a rising edge of the signal CLKA (e.g., through a third D flip-flop) to ensure that it is synchronized with the output recovered clock.

Referring to FIG. 6, a method (or process) 200 is shown. The method 200 generally comprises a decision state 202, a state 204, a state 206, a state 208, a decision state 210, a decision state 212, a state 214 and a state 216. The decision state 202 generally determines if a data edge is present. If a data edge is not present, the decision state 202 continues to check for such a condition. If a data edge is present, the state 204 determines a relative polarity and phase-offset magnitude for the data and clock. The state 206 adds the polarity and magnitude to a previously accumulated value. The state 208 may store the present accumulated value. The decision state 210 determines if the stored value is zero. When the stored value is zero, the process 200 returns to checking for a data edge (e.g., the state 202). When the stored accumulated value is not zero, the decision state 212 generally determines whether the polarity of the stored accumulated value is positive or negative. If the polarity is positive, the state 214 switches the clock counter clockwise and returns to the state 202. If the polarity is negative, the state 216 switches the clocks clockwise and returns to the state 202.

The function performed by the flow diagram of FIG. 6 may be implemented using a conventional general purpose digital computer programmed according to the teachings of the present specification, as will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art(s). Appropriate software coding can readily be prepared by skilled programmers based on the teachings of the present disclosure, as will also be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art(s)

The present invention may also be implemented by the preparation of ASICs, FPGAs, or by interconnecting an appropriate network of conventional component circuits, as is described herein, modifications of which will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art(s).

The present invention thus may also include a computer product which may be a storage medium including instructions which can be used to program a computer to perform a process in accordance with the present invention. The storage medium can include, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disk, optical disk, CD-ROM, and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, Flash memory, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of synchronizing a clock signal to a data signal, comprising the steps of: (A) detecting a first edge of said data signal; (B) determining a first value indicating a position of said first edge; (C) adding said first value to a second value and storing a result of said adding, wherein said second value indicates a position of a second edge of said data signal; and (D) adjusting said clock signal based on the result of step (C).
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: (E) detecting a third edge of said data signal; (F) determining a third value indicating a position of said third edge; (G) adding said third value to the result of step (c); and (H) adjusting said clock signal based on the result of step (G).
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein step (C) further comprises: adding a polarity and magnitude of said first and second values.
 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein step (B) further comprises the sub-step of: encoding a position of said first edge and said second edge.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein step (D) further comprises the sub-step of: (D−1) comparing a magnitude of the result of step (C) to a predetermined value.
 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein step (D) further comprises the sub-step of: (D−2) determining if the result of step (C) is positive.
 7. The method according to claim 6, wherein sub-step (D−2) further comprises: if the result of step (C) is positive, switching a number of clock signals counterclockwise; and if the result of step (C) is not positive, switching said number of clock signals clockwise.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of: sampling a number of clock signals using said data signal.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein step (D) comprises the sub-step of: incrementing a value in response to a first polarity.
 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein step (D) further comprises the sub-step of: decrementing said value in response to a second polarity.
 11. An apparatus for synchronizing a clock signal to a data signal, comprising: a detector configured to produce a plurality of values each representing a position of an edge of said data signal based upon a state of said clock signal; and control circuitry configured to adjust said clock signal in response to a summation of said plurality of values, wherein the control circuitry further comprises a storage element configured to store an encoded position of each of said plurality of values.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said control circuitry further comprises an increment/decrement logic circuit configured to adjust a value in response to said summation of values.
 13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said clock signal comprises a plurality of phases.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said control circuitry selects one of said plurality of phases as a system clock.
 15. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said summation of values comprises polarities and magnitudes of each of said plurality of values.
 16. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said circuitry is further configured to compare a magnitude of the summation of values to a predetermined value.
 17. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said circuitry is further configured to determine if the summation of values is positive and switch a direction of a number of clock signals in response thereof.
 18. A method of synchronizing a clock signal to a data signal, comprising the steps of: (A) detecting a first edge of said data signal; (B) determining a first value indicating a position of said first edge; (C) adding said first value to a second value, wherein said second value indicates a position of a second edge of said data signal; (D) encoding a position of said first edge and said second edge; and (E) adjusting said clock signal based on the result of step (C). 